Yousif Capital Management LLC Increases Holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Yousif Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 1.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 37,913 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 387 shares during the quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $2,698,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. Amundi raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 43.1% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,477,932 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $85,853,000 after purchasing an additional 444,986 shares during the period. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 12.0% during the 4th quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,967 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $304,000 after acquiring an additional 532 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 75.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 50,503 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,955,000 after acquiring an additional 21,737 shares during the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 7.3% in the fourth quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 13,245 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $775,000 after purchasing an additional 901 shares during the period. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 130,112 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $7,673,000 after purchasing an additional 8,403 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on WRB. Wall Street Zen cut shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded W. R. Berkley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $74.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $74.00 price target (up previously from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $70.64.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $73.17 on Friday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12-month low of $51.41 and a 12-month high of $76.38. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $71.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $64.99. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a market cap of $27.76 billion, a PE ratio of 16.77, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.42.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.07). W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. The business had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.01 billion. Analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 23rd will be issued a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 23rd. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. This is a boost from W. R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.42%.

W. R. Berkley Company Profile

W. R. Berkley Corporation, an insurance holding company, operates as a commercial lines writers worldwide. It operates in two segments, Insurance and Reinsurance & Monoline Excess. The Insurance segment underwrites commercial insurance business, including excess and surplus lines, admitted lines, and specialty personal lines.